Eggs at breakfast

This morning I was having a late breakfast when Mrs Blackbird came to her nest. I’ve learned a lot about blackbirds since she chose our window-box as a nursery. One thing I’ve learned is that they only start brooding their eggs (sitting on them) full time once they have laid the whole clutch. The rest of the time, they only visit the nest occasionally, and then usually only for one thing! So I was pretty clued up when she settled deep into the nest and started fidgeting about. I had already checked the nest out this morning – it contained one shiny blue egg. When she left the nest about an hour and a half later, I was delighted but not too surprised to see this…

What makes me especially happy is that I actually saw her laying the new egg! I suspect that I also saw her laying the first egg the day before, I just diddn’t know what I was looking at at the time. lets take a closer look…

I’m filled with anticipation as to how many she will lay. I also look forward to her brooding the eggs full time, as I love working at the kitchen table with her just across from me. We are very companionable together.

Baby Birds

Remember how in this post I described how a pair of blackbirds had nested in our window-box? Well at last I can update you on their progress.Three of the four eggs hatched into scraggy, blind and naked chicks that looked no bigger than a couple of centemetres long. Mother blackbird kept them warm and safe by sitting on them till she decided they were big enough, at which point she was able to leave the nest for more than a few seconds at a time, and I was able to snatch these pictures. She wasn’t really bothered by me at all, I’d be working at the kitchen table, she’d be brooding the chicks, we were just a couple of inches away from each other. The chicks were completely used to me too, the male however diddn’t like the look of me at all and muttered to himself crossly whenever he caught a glimpse of me. The chicks grew at a phenomenal rate and before long they were far too big for the nest, and spent a lot of time sitting on the edge, scratching, preening and stretching. I imagine it was very hot and itchy in the nest once they got so big.

They are well and truly wedged in here…

This little fluffy butt is completely squashing his siblings, no wonder they were in a hurry to leave! Yes, sadly they all flew the nest this weekend over the space of a couple of days. I actually saw the biggest one (pictured above) fledge while I was eating my breakfast, it just did a kamikaze dive straight out of the nest, hit the wall opposite, and plummeted flailing into the bushes below. I was very anxious about the little guy, but baby birds are tougher than they look and he was actually fine. Another one did the big jump while we were out on the town, and the final chick made a break for freedom on Sunday morning. I thought I would never see them again, but they are now living in thick undergrowth at the bottom of the garden. Baby blackbirds fly no better than I do when they leave the nest, so they are still dependant on their parents for food and protection until their adult plumage has grown and they are strong enough to look after themselves. it seems very harsh and completely crazy – apparently mortality rates are very high. However I’m hoping that our blackbirds will reach maturity, and I’ll keep eagerly watching them in our garden till they’ve grown.

Pre-easter eggs

It really feels like spring now. I’m enjoying the blue sky, burgeoning hedgerows, birds all shouting at each other, and best of all the blackbird on our kitchen window ledge, who has stoically sat on her eggs for over a fortnight, has been rewarded today with three scraggy nestlings. The fourth, beautiful, sky blue egg has yet to hatch. I don’t look too often for fear of scaring the parents off but when mum takes a rest break, I have a little peek. Sorry it’s a lousy pic – even when I pull the curtain away it still reflects off the glass and makes it hard to see details. But just look at the blue of that egg.

For about the first week the mother sat like a stone, so very still I only knew she was there because I’d already seen her. Recently she started fidgeting about on the nest and very recently she started calling softly to the chicks still in the egg – I am guessing they could hear and reply to her, as unhatched chickens can. Watching the whole process while I work at the kitchen table only a couple of feet away from her has been very moving – quite an intimate experience of a wild animal for an urbanite like me.